In the very last years the importance of geographical information has arisen both in the traditional market of cartography and several application sectors (e.g. Natural Parks). Today the new consumers of geospatial information make use of these tools to manage, conserve and promote a particular area of interest. PARC Service project (http://www.parcservice.org/) is funded by ESA (European Space Agency) ESRIN within the EOMD (Earth Observation Market Development) program and aims to implement a system based on Earth Observation products with a WebGIS component, designed to support natural parks management for data collection, integration and dissemination issues. The users of this newly designed system is the authority of “Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre” who has been putting a significant emphasis over conservation practices over this unique site facilitated its inclusion in the UNESCO world heritage list. This experience was extended to a natural area in the Aegean Sea Greece, for which an archipelago is a potential candidate to become a natural marine park. The Archipelago System (http://cartanetarkoi.webgis.planetek.gr/) represents an extension of functionalities which have been tailored for marine application services. The application is centred around the monitoring of posidonia seagrass to become part of a 3D WebGIS for above and below sea level use. The system ingests data of different sources and type, namely: mapping trough EO in clear and shallow waters, geophysical data, e.g. temperature etc. plus general information such as JPEG files. The user target is Archipelagos Aigaiou, an NGO organization that is managing conservation of an archipelago located in Aegean Sea. Ikonos images have been used for the two projects.
Both projects emphasise WebGIS instrument not only to realize management and monitoring activities, but also to disseminate information in order to promote the tourist aspect of areas under observation.